The CSS Shenandoah

Over the course of roughly thirteen months of operation, the infamous Confederate commerce raider CSS Shenandoah took part in some of the most unusual and least-known actions of the American Civil War. As with other similar Confederate ships, including the CSS Alabama, the CSS Florida, and CSS Sumter, a key aim of the CSS Shenandoah was to cripple the Union merchant fleet and undermine the Northern economy. Originally launched in August 1863 as the British troop transport Sea King before its purchase by the Confederacy, coordinated by Confederate Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch who was based in Liverpool for much of the war, the ship was re-outfitted and commissioned as the CSS Shenandoah in October 1864 off the coast of Funchal, Madeira. Captained by Lieutenant Commander James Waddell, Shenandoah was tasked with aiding the Confederacy’s efforts to disrupt the Union economy, specifically by capturing or sinking Union whaling vessels that contributed significantly to New England’s industry. To avoid the increasing dangers of the Civil War, whalers operated consistently further from the United States’ eastern coasts. Thus, Shenandoah set out towards the Indian and Pacific Ocean whaling grounds, capturing six prizes before reaching the Cape of Good Hope. Due to a crew shortage at the beginning of her voyage, some crew members from the captured prizes joined as members of the Shenandoah, some voluntarily and some under coercion, while most of the others were held until the ship reached a neutral port or were sent off with bonded prizes.

The Shenandoah continued through the Indian Ocean and eventually reached Hobson’s Bay in Melbourne, Australia, where she replenished supplies and filled out her crew, though nineteen men deserted during the three weeks in port, with some giving statements of their service to the US consul in Melbourne. After leaving Melbourne in February 1865, Shenandoah sailed into the Pacific, where its campaign increasingly focused on the American whaling fleet. She first headed towards New Zealand before heading north to Ascension Island (now Pohnpei Island in Micronesia), a popular stop for whaling ships where four additional prizes were taken. Shenandoah would spend roughly the first two weeks of April 1865 in port here.

Unbeknownst to the crew at the time, on the other side of the world, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the fighting in Virginia and representing one of the most decisive events signaling the end of the Civil War. Shenandoah, however, continued north with no knowledge of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, intending to intensify its mission of disrupting American whaling vessels as the most profitable whaling grounds had by then shifted farther northward into the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. She reached the Sea of Okhotsk in late May and, while flying Russian colors, took another prize there. Due to encroaching ice, she turned south and sailed into the Bering Sea, where most of the prizes would be taken. In the days between June 22 and June 28, Shenandoah would capture a total of twenty-four ships, the majority of which were burned. According to some accounts, Captain Waddell heard from one of these prizes that General Lee had surrendered nearly three months earlier and that the Confederate government had abandoned Richmond. Even then, Waddell remained confused about the war’s status after learning from a newspaper that Confederate President Jefferson Davis had issued a proclamation while on the run from Richmond, and after Lee had surrendered to Grant, that “the war would be carried on with renewed vigor.” It was not until over a month later, though, on August 2, 1865, that the Shenandoah learned definitively that the war was over, receiving the news from a British ship headed to San Francisco. At this time, the Confederate flag was lowered, and the ship was re-outfitted to resemble a merchant vessel. In Waddell’s own logs, the ship’s name changes from “C.S.S. Shenandoah” to simply “Steamship Shenandoah” on this day as well.

Fearing prosecution for piracy if the ship surrendered at an American port, Waddell decided to return the ship to Liverpool, sailing around Cape Horn in South America in a journey that took nearly three months, completing the only global circumnavigation by a Confederate ship. Shenandoah reached Liverpool on November 5, 1865, where it raised the Confederate flag to gain passage to the harbor. On November 6, the Confederate flag was lowered for the last time of the Civil War as Captain Waddell and the Shenandoah officially surrendered at Liverpool’s City Hall. Shenandoah’s voyage therefore illustrates the global reach of the Civil War, with the Confederacy attacking whaling vessels across four oceans and fully circumnavigating the globe. The fact that Shenandoah continued capturing ships after the Confederacy had effectively collapsed also makes its story one of the most unique closing episodes of the war. On June 22, 1865, the Shenandoah fired the last shot of the Civil War when it captured the whaler, the Sophia Thornton. Then, on June 28, 1865, the Shenandoah captured several more Yankee whalers in the Bering Strait in the final hostile action of the Civil War. In all, the effects of these raids extended far beyond the Civil War itself, with the losses to New England’s commercial whaling outfit seeing serious disruptions, with NOAA estimating nearly $1.5 million (about $30 million currently) in losses to the whaling industry.